Low-built railway carriage



y 1970 s. T. HENRIKSSON ETAL LOW-BUILT RAILWAY CARRIAGE 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 13, 1967 INVENTORS May 5, 1970 s. T. HENRIKSSON ETAL 3, 09,829

LOW-BUILT RAILWAY CARRIAGE Filed June 13, 1967 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTURS SUNE TORSTEN HENRIKSSON LARS ERIK LANDEBORG fw ATTORNEYS y 5, 1970 $4.1". HENRIKSSON ETAL 3,509,829

LOW-BUILT RAILWAY CARRIAGE I Filed June 13, 1967 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTORS SUNE TORSTEN HENRIKSSON LARS ERIK LANDEBORG 746 ATTORNEYS y 1970 s. T. HENRIKSSON El'AL 3,509,829

LOW-BUILT RAILWAY CARRIAGE 6 Sheets-Sheet 4.

Filed June 13, 1967 INVENTOR S ATTORNEYS SL 7 Y B y 1970 5.1". HENRIKSSON ETAL 3,509,829

LOW-BUILT RAILWAY CARRIAGE 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed June 13. 1967 mmv O y o o INVENTORS SUNE TORSTEN HENRIKSS LARS ERIK LANDEBOR WW6 ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,509,829 LOW-BUILT RAILWAY CARRIAGE Sune Torsten Henriksson, Kvartsvagen 6, Kiruna, Sweden, and Lars Erik Landeborg, Exercisgatan 2, Malmo, Sweden Filed June 13, 1967, Ser. No. 645,795 Claims priority, application Sweden, June 15, 1966, 8,222/ 66 Int. Cl. 1361f 1/00; B65 1/22; B61d 17/10 U.S. Cl. 105368 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A low-built railway carriage intended to permit railway transportation of rolling road vehicles according to the so-called roll on roll off system is disclosed. The carriage of the invention includes a plurality of flexibly coupled carriage body elements having raised portions at the coupled ends pivoted to multi-wheeled bogies and depressed intermediate portions having a loading plane below the top of the wheels of the bogies. The body elements are constructed with longitudinal grooves in the tops thereof having inclined sides whereby road vehicles may be readily driven from docks and the like onto the railway carriage. A flexible spherical pivoted joint is provided for connecting the ends of adjacent carriage body elements and the respective bogie together. The end body elements of the railway carriage are provided with raised end portions extending over the whole length of the supporting multi-wheel bogie and include a coupling device supported by link parallelograms which can be raised and lowered through a hydraulic connection to permit coupling of the low-built railway carriage disclosed to conventional railway carriages and to facilitate loading thereof. Bufl ers are carried on the end portions of the end carriage body elements which are built plain on top to facilitate their use as a vehicle runway between carriages.

Through this system it is possible to carry out transportation of goods quickly and more cheaply than when using conventional carriages because reloading from the road vehicle to the railway carriage or vice versa becomes unnecessary. The system, which is of American origin, could not, however, be applied successfully in Europe until now because the loading-gauges of European railways do not permit loads of the height that would result from transportation of for instance truck trailers and semi-trailers on railway carriages of normal loading level.

The invention provides a railway carriage having such a low loading level as to permit transportation of road vehicles of existing loading heights without exceeding the normal loading-gauge of the railways. The chiefly characteristic feature of this railway carriage is that it is composed of a plurality of carriage body elements flexibly coupled together and having raised portions at the coupled ends by means of which they are swingably carried on common bogies so that the intermediate portion of each carriage body element extends at a lower level between the bogies.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings showing and embodiment of the invention chosen by way of example, and in which FIG. 1 is a lateral vertical projection of part of a lowbuilt railway carriage according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross section through the carriage on line A-A in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross section through the carriage on line B-B in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal projection of part of the railway carriage.

FIG. 5 is a detail section on line CC in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a lateral vertical projection, and FIG. 7 is a horizontal projection, of the ends of two railway carriages which are coupled together and which can be raised and lowered.

FIG. 8 is a lateral vertical projection of the end of a railway carriage according to the invention which can be raised and lowered and which is coupled together with a railway carriage of a conventional kind.

FIG. 9 is a slightly diagrammatic view of a train set consisting of carriages according to the invention coupled together and comprising a number of articulated carriage body elements loaded with trailers and semi-trailers, a goods Waggon of the conventional kind, and a locomotive.

FIG. 10 is a horizontal projection of a railway carriage according to the invention standing adjacent a low loading quay, while trailers are being driven directly from the quay onto the carriage or from the carriage onto the quay.

FIG. 11 is a cross section on line DD in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a trailer being driven from a low loading quay over the end of the first carriage body element.

FIG. 13 is also a perspective View of a trailer being driven from a loading quay of normal height over the end of the first element of the railway carriage.

The low-built railway carriage according to the invention is composed of an arbitrarily chosen number of carriage body elements 1 flexibly coupled together, as shown in FIGS. 1, 4 and 5, which are supported in common on bogies 2 at the coupled ends. The carriage may for instance consist of ten carriage body elements 1 supported by eleven bogies 2. The flexible coupling of the carriage body elements 1 is carried out by means of a king pin 3 disposed at the middle of the ends of the elements and a rubber bushing 4, so that the elements 1 have the necessary freedom of movement in relation to each other. In these bogies the above-mentioned king pin 3 is mounted in a rubber bearing 5 with its end projecting downward from the underside of the carriage body elements 1, said bearing being disposed at the middle of a transverse girder 6 in the bogies.

Each carriage body element 1 is built from an upper sheet metal platform 7 and a lower sheet metal platform 8, which are united into a rigid unit by means of a main girder 9 and a number of spacers or girders 10 extending between them in the longitudinal direction of the carriage body element and with which they are welded together. The lower sheet metal platform 8 is entirely plane, while the upper platform 7 has a raised longitudinal ridge in the middle and two longitudinal grooves with inclined sides 12 and 15 on both sides thereof. This configuration has its correspondence in the fact that the main girder 9, which is of -I-section, extends in the middle of the carriage body element along the greater portion of its length and has a height of for instance 320 mm, while the spacers 10, which are disposed on both sides of the girder 9 and are of L-section, have a height decreasing in two steps down to for instance mm., forming the loading level 11 near the elastic curve 13 of the carriage body element. At both ends of the carriage body element there are higher portions which are plane also on the top. The two sheet metal platforms are united with each other there by means of girders 14 of similar height. These portions are connected with the lower central portion by downwardly inclined transitional portions. Along the longitudinal side margins of the carriage body element the upper loading platform 7 has parts 15 inclined upward and outward, at the central portion of its lengths and at the ends it has parts 16 inclined downward and outward, merging with the parts 15 at the transition between the higher located end portions and the lower longitudinal portion of the carriage body element located there between. As a consequence hereof, the marginal line of the central and end portions of the carriage body element will be located at approximately the same level above the rails. The king pin 3 mentioned above and the rubber bushing or the spherical bearing 4 are received in two bearing parts 17 and 18 fitted into each other and welded together with the sheet metal platforms 7 and 8 at the middle of the opposite ends of two carriage body elements 1 located adjacent each other.

In each railway carriage the two outermost carriage body elements have their outer end portions 19 which are embodied in a manner differing from the one described above, because these end portions are provided in particular for penmitting low-built railway carriages to be coupled together with each other or with railway carriages of the conventional kind, or to fit against a loading quay having a stationary butter device. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, the said end portions 19 are lengthened so that each one of them extends over the whole length of the bogie 2 on which the respective end portion of the carriage body element is supported, and terminates in a projection 20 directed obliquely downward in the outer end of which there are provided articulated couplings for one lower end of each of two hydraulic lifters 21 and two telescopic locks 22. Two fittings 23 provided on the inner portion of each end portion 19, at the sides thereof, each form two joints disposed above each other for two parallelogram links 24, the upper ones of which are shaped so as to form a runway, and which extend towards the outer end of the carriage body element and which are flexibly connected at their outer ends with a transverse box girder 25, which is supported partly by the two links 24, partly by the telescopic locks 22, which are flexibly connected with the box girder at 26. The box girder 25 serves as a support for the hook 27 of a conventional coupling device and further carries two butters 28 and 29', one, 28, of which has a plane abutment surface, while the other one 29 has a curved abutment surface. The buffers are built plane and simultaneously serve as a runway. Similarly, the usual connection hose 30 between the air brake conduits of the carriages and the connecting conduit 32 of the electric system of the carriages are disposed on the box girder 25.

When two low-built railway carriages are coupled together with each other, their parallelogram links 24 should occupy the horizontal position shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 with the hydraulic lifters 21 contracted. The coupling device between the carriages is then located at its lower level above the rails. If the carriages are provided with bogies in which the wheels have a diameter of 340 to 350 mm., the fixing points of the coupling hooks 27 may for instance be located 635 mm. above the rails. When coupling a low-built railway carriage together with another carriage 41 of the conventional kind, i.e. built on bogies having a wheel diameter of 950 mm., as shown in FIG. 8, the links 24 are first placed in the raised position shown in FIG. 8 by means of the hydraulic lifters 21, which can be operated by means of a hand pump 31, which is disposed together with an oil tank in the projection 20 of the carriage body element. In the said raised position the coupling hook 27 is on a level with the coupling hook of the other carriage 41. The carriages may then be coupled together in the usual manner.

In order to illustrate the use of the invention still further, a train set is shown in FIG. 9 consisting of a loco motive 33, a conventional covered goods Waggon 34, a low-built railway carriage 35 comprising five carriage elements (six bogies), and an arbitrarily chosen number of additional low-built railway carriages 35, of which only part of the first carriage is shown. The carriages 35 are shown loaded with trailers 36.

'FIG. shows six carriage elements of a low-built railway carriage having at the end, which is to the left in the figure, an end portion for coupling it together with other carriages. In this figure, and in FIG. 11, where the carriage is standing adjacent a loading quay 37, it is coupled by means of this end portion to a fixed plane butter device 38. FIG. 10 shows in two different stages how a trailer 36 with its pulling vehicle 39 may be driven from the side onto the railway carriage directly from the loading quay 37. The cross section in FIG. 11 shows the trailer 36 completely driven onto the railway carriage, while the pulling vehicle 39 has returned to the loading quay ready to be disconnected from the trailer. Because the sides 12 and 15 of the upper sheet metal platform 7 of the carriage body element are inclined, the ve hicle and trailer may be driven onto the railway carriage from any direction, while the longitudinal grooves between the said sides still provide the necessary lateral support to the trailer during transportation. The lateral projection in FIG. 12 shows how the loading of the trailer 36 may also take place over the end of the low-built railway carriage 36 when the said carriage is coupled with this end to a low loading quay against a fixed plane buffer device 38. FIGS. 10 and 12 also show how the pulling vehicle and the trailer can be driven over from one carriage body element to another over the raised end portions between them. Finally, the lateral projection in FIG. 13 of a low-built railway carriage 35 shows how the loading of a trailer may also take place over the end of the carriage 35 from a loading quay 40 of a normal height, when the carriage 35 is standing with this end adjacent the loading quay against a plane buffer device 38.

What is claimed is:

1. A low-built railway carriage for use in transportation of road vehicles or the like comprising a plurality of end aligned carriage body elements having raised end portions and depressed intermediate portions, said raised end portions of the carriage body elements having downwardly inclined sides and the intermediate portions of the carriage body elements having upwardly inclined sides which terminate along a marginal line at the sides of the railway carriage at approximately a constant level above the rails with transition portions being provided on the top of the carriage body elements between the raised portions at each end-and the depressed intermediate portions of the carriage body elements, bogie structure having separate wheels under the adjacent ends of adjacent body elements positioned beneath the adjacent ends of each of the adjacent carriage body elements, and flexible pivot means connecting the adjacent ends of the carriage body elements and the respective bogie centrally of the respective bogie.

2. Structure as set forth in claim 1 and further including longitudinally extending upwardly opening grooves at each side of each of the carriage body elements having inclined sides for guiding the wheels of road vehicles carried on the railway carriage.

3. Structure as set forth in claim 1 wherein the flexible pivot means includes a spherical bearing member supported in one end of a carriage body element, an elastic member surrounding the bearing member and a pivot pin extending through the bushing in the one end of the carriage body element, one end of an adjacent carriage body element and into the respective bogie.

-4. Structure as set forth in claim 1 wherein the end carriage body elements have outer end portions which extend over the entire length of their associated bogie and further including a coupling device carried by the extended ends of the outer carriage body elements and means operably associated with the coupling device for raising and lowering the coupling device to permit coupling of the low-built railway carriage with standard railway carriages.

5. Structure as set forth in claim 4 wherein the means for raising and lowering the coupling device consists of link parallelograms at each side of the extended portion of the ends of the carriage body elements pivotally connected to the coupling device and the carriage body element.

6. Structure as set forth in claim wherein the means for raising and lowering the coupling device further includes hydraulic telescoping lifters connected between the bogie and the coupling device.

7. Structure as set forth in claim 5 and further including a buffer connected to the coupling device which includes a flat upper surface to form a way over which road vehicles may be driven from one carriage to another.

8. A low-built railway carriage for use in transportation of road vehicles or the like comprising a plurality of end aligned carriage body elements having raised end portions and depressed intermediate portions, bogie structure having separate wheels under the adjacent ends of adjacent body elements positioned beneath the adjacent ends of each of the adjacent carriage body elements, the end carriage body elements having outer end portions which extend over the entire length of their associated bogie, a coupling device carried by the extended ends of the outer carriage body elements, means operably associated with the coupling device for raising and lowering the coupling device to permit coupling of the low-built railway carriage with standard railway carriages including link parallelograms at each side of the extended portion of the ends of the carriage body elements pivotally connected to the coupling device and the carriage body elements and pivot means connecting the adjacent ends of the carriage body elements and the respective bogie centrally of the respective bogie.

9. Structure as set forth in claim 8 wherein the means for raising and lowering the coupling device further includes hydraulic telescoping lifters connected between the bogie and the coupling device.

10. Structure as set forth in claim 8 and further including a buffer connected to the coupling device which includes a flat upper surface to form a way over which road vehicles may be driven from one carriage to another.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,810,718 6/1931 Lord -199 2,209,229 7/1940 Kjolseth 213-64 X 2,499,087 2/1950 Bourdon 105-199 2,881,713 4/1959 Brill et a1. 105-4 2,969,752 1/1961 Terlecky 105-368 X 3,101,680 8/1963 Raab et al. 105-368 3,102,497 9/1963 Candlin et al. 105-368 2,722,897 11/1955 Morey 105-73 3,216,370 11/1965 Kulieke 105-4 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,173,693 10/1958 France.

DRAYTON E. HOFFMAN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 105-4, 414, 422 

